Everyone moved to the Gym quickly. Ash and Wally went down to the challenger's side, while Tate and Liza went up to the Gym Leader side. Meanwhile, May, Max, and Brendan moved up to the bleachers with Pikachu and Vee to watch.
Wally was a little nervous, but then again, when was he not a little nervous? So that was normal. This time, though, it was because he thought he was gonna hold Ash back and make him lose, but Ash had already waved him off multiple times.
Anyway, this battle had special rules, since double battles were technically considered a gimmick in Hoenn simply because the Pokémon Association had put a trademark on them and inflated their popularity.
If another Gym in another region wanted to have an official double battle, they would need to pay the Association royalties, and believe it or not, other Leagues didn't want to do that.
That's actually why doubles aren't really done in the Pokémon world compared to the VGC, where it's the superior format for competitive Pokémon, mostly because of the Hoenn Association.
And that's why they push double battles so much. If they can get normal people to like the format and make it more popular, they can spread that popularity further. That's the exact reason they put Tate and Liza in as the Gym Leaders, so that every battle would be a double battle and therefore artificially inflate its popularity.
Or take someone like Raihan over in Galar. Since he's an influencer who does double battles as his thing, that increases their popularity in Galar, and the Hoenn Association pays him royalties too.
That's not to say Raihan got bribed. It's more like a sponsorship deal, and he wasn't even the one who accepted it. Rose did, and then he pushed Raihan to start making all his battles double battles.
All that to say, it was weird, but in this format, since Ash had six badges and Wally had five, to make it fair, each trainer would only get two Pokémon, meaning each side had four in total. It would still count for Ash's challenge, meaning after this he would only need to battle one more gimmick Gym.
But now it was time for the battle. Tate and Liza stood together with matching grins.
"Alright, challengers!" Tate called out dramatically.
"This will be a special two-versus-two Mossdeep double battle!" Liza continued.
"You already know how the rules work, so we won't bore you. Let's begin!" Tate finished.
Four Poké Balls flew out, hitting the stadium floor.
Tate sent out a Hypno with a Wide Lens. Liza sent out a Grumpig with Leftovers. Wally threw out a Roselia wearing the Safety Goggles Ash had given him, and Ash started with his Vibrava holding a Life Orb.
Tate pointed forward dramatically, "Hypno! Start with [Hypnosis]!"
"Grumpig, use [Teeter Dance]!" Liza followed instantly.
Both Psychic-types moved at the exact same time. Hypno's pendulum began to swing while Grumpig started bouncing around weirdly, sending distorted waves everywhere.
"Avoid looking directly at Hypno!" Ash immediately called out, "Vibrava, get up high!"
Vibrava buzzed loudly and shot upward before the hypnosis waves could fully lock onto him.
"Roselia, close your eyes!" Wally shouted a second later.
Roselia obeyed instantly, but the second the Teeter Dance reached her, Roselia stumbled sideways anyway.
"Roselia?!" Wally panicked.
"Looks like he was slightly too slow," Ash said, but before Wally could try to do something about it, the twins attacked.
"Now [Psybeam]!" Tate and Liza called together.
Hypno and Grumpig fired crossing beams of psychic energy toward Roselia.
"Vibrava, [Sandstorm]!" Ash ordered immediately.
Vibrava flapped its wings hard, blasting a massive spiral of sand across the battlefield.
The Psybeams distorted inside the storm, veering off-course just enough for Roselia to stumble out of the way.
And a good thing he did, because right behind him the ground exploded where he had been standing.
Wally saw that and gulped, but he slapped himself on the cheeks slightly, focusing real quick, "Roselia, use [Magical Leaf]!"
Roselia spun his body and threw multiple glowing leaves into the sky. The floating leaves curved through the sandstorm toward them.
"Grumpig, bounce them back with [Psychic]!" Liza shouted.
Grumpig's eyes glowed purple, stopping the leaves midair, but before they could try something fancy, Ash called out, "Now, Vibrava, [Dragon Breath] straight through!"
A blast of purple fire ripped through the sandstorm directly toward Grumpig.
"Wha—" Liza blinked.
Grumpig dropped control of the leaves just in time to dodge sideways, but that left Hypno exposed, and the purple fire slammed directly into Hypno and pushed it backward across the field.
"Wha?" Wally said, still slightly confused about what just happened. Then he blinked a few times before looking over at Ash.
Ash glanced sideways toward Wally, "See? You're doing fine," he said, giving him a thumbs up.
Wally straightened slightly, "…Right."
Wally took a deep breath, seeing Grumpig and Hypno starting to regroup, and he tried again, "Roselia, use [Magical Leaf] again!"
But just as Roselia was about to start spinning, Tate immediately called out, "Oh no you don't! Hypno, [Disable] on Roselia!"
Hypno's eyes glowed blue and Roselia froze up and began glowing blue too. He got locked out of [Magical Leaf].
Then Liza quickly added, "And now lock Vibrava down with [Psychic]!"
The second Vibrava tried to move, invisible force slammed into him from all sides and stopped him midair.
"Heheheh! Gotcha now!" Tate pointed dramatically.
But Ash picked at his ear casually, "I dunno, seems like I've got you~" Ash said with a small smile, since Grumpig and Hypno were taking chip damage from the sandstorm, and Roselia was safe thanks to the Safety Goggles.
"Hm, well maybe you do. Let's fix that. Grumpig, [Power Gem]!" Liza commanded.
Dozens of glowing crystal-like projectiles burst through the sandstorm toward Vibrava, who still couldn't move yet.
But Ash just snapped his fingers, "[Bug Buzz]."
Vibrava screeched with his wings, the sound blasting outward and hitting Hypno's ears hard enough to break its concentration for a moment, and that let Vibrava quickly fly out of the way of the rocks.
At that moment Wally saw an opening and quickly called out, "[Sleep Powder]!"
Roselia spun and threw spores into the sandstorm, and they flew directly at Hypno and Grumpig. Grumpig immediately started getting drowsy, but Hypno stayed awake even as Grumpig fell over and started snoring. After all, Hypno had Insomnia.
But at least thanks to Wally, this turned the 2v2 into a 2v1 for a bit, though Grumpig would wake up in a few seconds, so they had to make the most of it.
"Vibrava, [Bulldoze]!" Ash called out.
"Roselia, try a [Leech Seed]!" Wally called out.
Vibrava flew toward the ground as Roselia ran forward toward Hypno, but this time Tate smirked.
"You wanna play like that? I can too. Hypno, get in close!" Tate commanded.
Hypno began running directly at the approaching Pokémon, and as Vibrava hit the ground and started making it shake, Hypno jumped as high as it could, barely missing the eruption. But then came the seeds from Roselia.
As it looked like the seeds were about to land, Hypno teleported out of the way, then immediately reappeared under Roselia.
"What?! Roselia!" Wally called out immediately.
But Tate was faster, "My turn! [Hypnosis]!"
Hypno spun his pendulum directly at Roselia, and Roselia couldn't do anything. Roselia fell over and started sleeping too.
So much for a 2v1. Now this became a 1v1 until one of the two sleeping Pokémon woke up.
"Sorry, Ash," Wally apologized.
"Don't worry about it. Focus on waking Roselia up, I got this," Ash said with a grin, "Vibrava, [Dragon Breath]."
Vibrava whipped around midair and unleashed another blast of purple fire directly at Hypno, but this time Tate was ready for it.
"Hypno, [Protect]!" Tate called immediately.
A barrier appeared around Hypno just as the flames slammed into it, and the purple fire bounced off harmlessly.
Then Tate continued, "Now close the distance!"
Hypno rushed through the sandstorm directly toward Vibrava.
"[Ice Punch]!" Tate commanded.
Hypno's fist glowed and a glove of ice appeared around it as it ran toward Vibrava.
But Ash responded instantly, "Meet him head-on with [Crunch]!"
Vibrava dove straight downward and bit directly into Hypno's arm the moment the punch connected.
Hypno's eyes widened, because the [Ice Punch] still landed and made ice start spreading across Vibrava's body, but Vibrava refused to let go.
"Now spin," Ash commanded, twisting his fighters together.
Vibrava suddenly twisted violently in midair while still clamped onto Hypno's arm. He began spinning around, making sure Hypno still got hit by the sandstorm chip damage. Then he used Hypno like a hammer and slammed Hypno directly into the ground so hard the ice on his body shattered.
But then, when Vibrava was about to fly down to finish the job, Grumpig suddenly woke up from the shockwave.
Liza immediately recovered, "Grumpig, help Hypno with [Psychic]!"
Purple psychic force exploded outward and slammed into Vibrava, finally knocking him away from Hypno and sending him back. Vibrava buzzed angrily.
Ash clicked his tongue lightly, "Almost had him."
But one good thing was that by now Roselia was starting to get up.
"Roselia, are you okay?!" Wally called out immediately.
Roselia pushed himself back up shakily, still a little dizzy from the Hypnosis, but he nodded firmly.
"That's it, shake it off!" Wally encouraged. Then he looked back at the battlefield and took a deep breath, "Okay...okay…"
"Let's turn up the pressure. Vibrava, get back up into the air!"
Vibrava buzzed loudly and shot upward again, circling through the storm.
"Roselia," Wally said carefully, trying to stay calm this time, "use [Stun Spore]!" He figured if Sleep wouldn't work on Hypno, he could try paralysis instead.
Roselia scattered a cloud of yellow powder out, but Tate immediately saw through his plan.
"Oh no you don't!" Tate pointed forward, "Hypno, blow it away with [Psybeam]!"
Hypno fired a beam through the cloud, scattering most of it, but because the sandstorm was still up, it got sucked into the storm and began spinning around before eventually flying out and hitting Grumpig, forcing the pig to breathe it in and become paralyzed.
"Oh come on, why me again?" Liza said, stomping her foot slightly.
"Sorry!" Wally called out into the sandstorm.
Liza huffed again and pointed forward, "Tate, help me out! Grumpig, use [Power Gem]!"
Grumpig managed to avoid getting fully stunned and threw another barrage of glowing crystals into the air toward Vibrava.
"Vibrava, get out of there," Ash commanded, but before Vibrava could do that
"Not this time! Hypno, hold him down!" Tate commanded.
Hypno's eyes glowed and suddenly Vibrava was caught, and before he could try to break free, the stones came in and hit Vibrava directly, shooting him out of the air and spiraling toward the ground.
And what's worse, the sandstorm was starting to dissipate, so now the field was clear again while Vibrava was slowly standing up and trying to recover.
But Ash stayed calm and looked over the field to think, while Hypno lowered its arms with a smug look and Grumpig floated beside it, still twitching occasionally from the paralysis.
"Heheheh! Nice one!" Tate grinned, pointing dramatically.
Liza nodded quickly, "Now keep the pressure on before they recover!"
"Hypno use [Ice Punch] again!"
"Grumpig, [Shadow Ball]!"
Hypno rushed forward while Grumpig formed a swirling orb of dark energy overhead.
"Ash!" Wally looked over to him.
Ash finally looked over, "Cover me, alright?"
Wally gulped and nodded, looking at the field, "Roselia, use [Leech Seed] on Hypno no matter what!"
Roselia immediately ran forward again despite still looking tired.
At the same time, Ash snapped his fingers, "Vibrava, straight through them. Get in close!"
Vibrava forced himself back into the air with an angry buzz just as Hypno closed in and Grumpig launched the [Shadow Ball].
Hypno's fist glowed icy blue again, but Vibrava flew directly toward both attacks anyway.
"What?!" Tate's eyes widened.
The Shadow Ball barely missed Vibrava as he dodged it by a hair, but it kept flying past while Vibrava's body began glowing purple slightly. He was going in for a [Dragon Rush].
"Hypno, get back!" Tate tried.
Hypno was about to spread its arms out to teleport, but that's when Roselia came in, spinning and throwing the seeds out.
Three landed on Hypno and grew, tying Hypno's arms together, and without its arms, it couldn't teleport since it needed them to use its pendulum.
And that's when Vibrava got in close and slammed into Hypno hard, pushing against it. For a bit Hypno tried pushing back, but Vibrava glowed brighter, first purple from the dragon energy, but then he began glowing white and grew. His body became longer and his wings got bigger.
Vibrava evolved into Flygon finally, and with one more push managed to slam Hypno down to the ground hard enough to knock the Psychic-type out.
But at the same time, on the other side of the field, the [Shadow Ball] from before flew past and ended up hitting Roselia. Since he was too busy throwing the seeds, he couldn't dodge. Once the explosion cleared, Roselia was also knocked out.
Wally returned Roselia while holding his Poké Ball, "You did good," he said with a small smile.
Tate did the same with Hypno, "Okay, that was pretty good, but I'm not out yet."
He switched Poké Balls and then threw out Solrock with a Life Orb.
Wally was about to throw out Gallade, but then he saw Solrock, and one of his Poké Balls shook. He looked down at it and picked that one up, "You want to battle?" The ball shook again and Wally gulped, "Okay, I trust you."
He threw out the Poké Ball and from it came Wally's Grovyle.
Across the field, Tate pointed dramatically again, "Alright then! Solrock, let's show them our combo attacks!"
Liza puffed her cheeks out slightly, "And Grumpig too! Don't ignore Grumpig!"
Tate blinked, "I wasn't ignoring Grumpig."
"You totally were."
"No I wasn't!"
"Were too!"
Ash snorted a little while Flygon hovered overhead, its wings humming loudly now that it had evolved.
"Heheheh! Anyway!" Tate immediately recovered, "Solrock, use [Rock Slide]!"
Large chunks of stone formed overhead before raining down toward Flygon and Grovyle.
"Flygon, break through!" Ash pointed upward, "[Dragon Claw]!"
Flygon's claws glowed bright green as it spun upward through the falling rocks, smashing through several of them midair.
"Grovyle, dodge left!" Wally called out quickly.
Grovyle dashed across the field with surprising speed, weaving between the falling stones before jumping onto one and springing off it.
"Now [Leaf Blade]!" Wally shouted.
The leaves on Grovyle's arms glowed bright green as he shot straight toward Grumpig.
"Grumpig, stop him with [Psychic]!" Liza commanded.
Purple energy grabbed Grovyle midair, but Flygon suddenly swept downward beside him.
"I got you, Wally! [Crunch]!" Ash called.
Flygon got close and bit down on Grumpig's shoulder, making the pig squeal out in pain, and it dropped concentration on the [Psychic], letting Grovyle go free.
"Grumpig!" Liza called out worriedly.
Then Tate cut in and pointed to the sky where Flygon was, "[Zen Headbutt]!"
Solrock's body glowed and it flew directly at Flygon, chasing him around determined to hit him out of the air.
And while the air combat was happening, back on the ground Wally pointed forward, "Grovyle, use [Quick Attack]!"
Grovyle blurred forward, going directly toward Grumpig.
"Grumpig, use [Power Gem]!" Liza ordered quickly.
The glowing crystals fired outward, but the paralysis from earlier kicked in. Grumpig twitched violently and got stunned, so it couldn't attack or move.
Grovyle zipped through the opening and slammed directly into Grumpig with [Quick Attack], sending the pig flying back and crashing against the wall with spirals in its eyes, knocked out.
For a bit Liza looked at Grumpig, then like a good older sister she looked over to Tate and said, "Your Pokémon went down first," she said smugly.
Tate immediately pointed at the unconscious Grumpig, "Uh huh. And what's that over there then?"
Liza looked over, "A Grumpig taking a nap."
"Heheheh! Sure it is!"
"At least MY Pokémon didn't get body-slammed by a freshly evolved Flygon!"
Tate gasped dramatically, "Wowww. Sounds like somebody's embarrassed."
Liza puffed her cheeks out, "I am NOT embarrassed!"
"Really? Because your face is all red."
"That's because I'm mad!"
"Heheheh!"
Meanwhile, Ash and Wally just stared at them for a moment, then looked at each other and both shrugged. Just sibling behavior at its finest. Wally wouldn't know, since he was an only child, and while Ash had Molly, that didn't count since they weren't related by blood.
And while Liza finally huffed and switched Pokémon, sending out Lunatone, also with a Life Orb, Ash realized something after battling for a bit.
He might be a little overleveled for this. I mean, nothing against Tate and Liza. They were both plenty strong. If this had been two weeks ago he would've been struggling, but after what happened at the Battle Frontier, Ash and his Pokémon had gotten significantly stronger.
And case in point, Flygon was still standing and he wasn't looking like he was gonna go down anytime soon. Man, there were levels to this. Maybe he should've started smaller. Oh well, too late now.
Back to the battle, Liza finally got serious again, "Lunatone, set up [Light Screen]!"
Lunatone's eyes glowed as a translucent barrier spread across their side of the battlefield.
"And Solrock, use [Solar Beam]!" Tate shouted.
But Wally was finally starting to get the tempo and gain a little confidence. It just took him a bit to warm up
"Grovyle, use [Screech]!"
Grovyle leapt forward and let out a horrible metallic cry across the battlefield, making both Lunatone and Solrock flinch from the sound and leaving them distracted.
"Now Flygon, [Sand Tomb]!" Ash pointed forward.
Flygon's wings buzzed violently as spiraling sand erupted upward around Solrock and Lunatone, trapping both Psychic-types inside a rotating vortex.
"Lunatone, break out with [Psychic]!" Liza called.
Invisible force exploded outward, blasting apart chunks of the sandstorm, but not before Grovyle shot through the opening they created.
"[Leaf Blade]!" Wally shouted.
Grovyle's glowing blades slashed directly across Solrock's body.
"Solllll!" Solrock cried out as the hit sent it spinning backward.
At the same time Flygon burst down from above.
"And now [Stone Edge]!" Ash called out.
Flygon slammed both claws into the ground and the earth beneath Lunatone and Solrock exploded as pillars shot upward, knocking them both back, but they were still up.
"We're not done yet!" Tate pointed dramatically, "Solrock, [Zen Headbutt]!"
"And Lunatone, [Ice Beam]!" Liza followed instantly.
Solrock shot forward glowing blue while Lunatone fired a freezing beam across the battlefield.
"Split up!" Ash and Wally shouted together.
Flygon shot upward while Grovyle dashed sideways, but Solrock suddenly changed targets mid-charge and veered directly toward Grovyle.
Grovyle tried to dodge, but Solrock was too fast. The glowing meteor slammed directly into Grovyle and sent him skidding across the ground.
"Grovyle!" Wally called out in panic.
At the same time Lunatone swung its beam upward toward Flygon, freezing one of Flygon's wings partially in ice and making Flygon start to fall.
Just as Tate and Liza were about to high five, thinking this would be over soon, once Grovyle went down they could target whatever Ash brought out and then they'd win.
But then Grovyle started pushing himself up with his elbows, and as Grovyle struggled he suddenly began glowing.
The light shot out across the field, and Grovyle's body got bigger while his tail bloomed larger as well. He became a Sceptile and stood up ready to keep going, and at the same time Flygon managed to break his wings free before he hit the ground.
Liza puffed her cheeks slightly, "Okay, that's kinda unfair now."
"Maybe just a little," Tate admitted nervously.
But then both twins pointed forward together again.
"Solrock, [Solar Beam]!"
"Lunatone, [Psychic]!"
Solrock finally fired off all the energy it had been charging earlier into a beam while Lunatone's psychic force surged around it, twisting the attack into a spiraling blast.
But this time Wally was ready and took a breath, slapping his cheeks and smiling, "Sceptile!" Wally shouted, "[Leaf Blade]!"
"Flygon!" Ash pointed upward, "[Dragon Pulse]!"
Sceptile sprinted forward directly toward the incoming beam, his arm blades glowing blinding green. At the same time Flygon flew overhead and unleashed a massive pulse of draconic energy downward.
As Sceptile reached the beam, he immediately dodged to the left and kept running. Meanwhile, the [Dragon Pulse] began clashing against the combo attack, but it was stronger and started pushing back against it.
But that didn't matter, because Sceptile ran directly to the source, Solrock and Lunatone. Then he jumped and slashed at them both with his blades, making them stop firing the attack.
And that was enough. Since they weren't firing their beam anymore and Flygon still was, the [Dragon Pulse] pushed through and covered both of them immediately after, causing one more explosion across the field.
Before the black smoke even cleared, Solrock fell from the sky and Lunatone dropped beside it. Both of them hit the ground at the exact same time.
Wally let out a breath of relief as Ash raised his hand, "We did it. Told you," he said.
"Ah, yeah, I guess you did," Wally said, returning the high five.
Meanwhile on the other side, Tate and Liza returned their Pokémon and sighed together.
"Man, I really thought we had it," Tate admitted.
"We trained so hard. I thought we could at least take down one of Ash's Pokémon," Liza huffed, crossing her arms.
"Hey, don't say that. You guys did great too. Really had us there for a bit," Ash said.
"You're just saying that because you're trying to be nice," Liza huffed.
"No, really. If I didn't have Ash here, I would've lost if I tried alone," Wally said, trying to cheer them up.
"Well, that does make me feel a little better," Tate admitted.
"But we should do a rematch someday," Liza added.
"Sure, just say the time and format, and I'll beat you guys all the same," Ash said with a wink, making the twins snort a little.
"Oh yeah, well, it can't be helped. You've won..." Tate started.
Liza realized what he was doing and continued, "...so take this in recognition!"
Then they both held out one badge each to Ash and Wally: the Mind Badge, which they took happily.
Then they heard their friends clapping for them from the bleachers and cheering, already starting to walk down to meet them by the door.
"Okay, so what should we do next?" Wally asked as the four of them started walking toward the Pokémon Center.
"Well, other than the Pokémon Center, do you guys want us to show you around the rest of town?" Liza offered.
"That would be nice if you don't mind," Ash said, getting a bit of a smirk, "Do you have any other 'visions' about challengers today?"
Liza looked away and blushed in embarrassment, already regretting the excuse they had gone with, but she had to live with it, "Erm...no. No one else should come today…"
As they finished saying that, they met up with the others, and Brendan immediately slapped Ash and Wally on the backs, "Congrats on the battle, guys! We should go celebrate!"
"Oh, if we're gonna celebrate, then I heard Mossdeep has some famous restaurants!" May said, tapping her chin while already thinking about food.
"You're just saying that for the food," Max deadpanned, staring at his sister.
"I fail to see your point."
At this point May had accepted it and decided to ignore it whenever Max made a snarky comment like that.
"Well, we can certainly show you the best spots in town for lunch!" Tate said happily.
"That's great and all, but I feel like we're forgetting something," Ash finally said, making everyone stop and think. But then Ash heard his phone buzz, and everyone realized it at the same time.
"We forgot Brock!" the group yelled out together.
They could only imagine what was happening to him and how lonely he was.
—
{Meanwhile}
Brock was literally laying on Lucy's lap and eating a chocolate strawberry. He could die happy right here.
—
They all snapped out of their thoughts at the same time. On second thought, he was probably happier over there.
"Let's go get lunch!" Brendan said, spinning on his heel toward the door, and everyone followed after him.